The morning after: Duterte draws flak

MANILA, Philippines – A day after he announced his marching orders to his incoming team in waging war on drugs, crime and corruption, criticism rained on president-elect Rodrigo Duterte, with opposition coming even from one of his Cabinet nominees.

Incoming social welfare secretary Judy Taguiwalo, detained and tortured for communist rebel activities during the martial law regime, yesterday opposed Duterte’s plan to allow the burial of dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, possibly as early as Sept. 11 on his 99th birth anniversary.

Taguiwalo, a professor of women and development studies at the University of the Philippines where she graduated with honors before martial law was imposed in 1972, is one of the nominees to the Duterte Cabinet of the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front.

Media groups, for their part, expressed outrage over Duterte’s comments on Tuesday that justified the killing of “corrupt” journalists, one of whom he described as a “son of a bitch” who deserved to die.

On another issue, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. yesterday predicted rough sailing in the 17th Congress for Duterte’s pet legislation – the reimposition of capital punishment, this time by hanging.

Taguiwalo said that being a victim of the Marcos regime, she could never support the burial of the dictator at the heroes’ cemetery.

But she clarified that her stand did not mean she could not work with Duterte, whose father was close to the late strongman and who has said he is a friend of Marcos’ only son and namesake, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

“I was arrested, tortured. I spent years in prison. That’s my personal experience,” Taguiwalo told reporters in Davao City. “President Duterte expressed his own experience… his father was appointed (by Marcos) so it was a different experience. I don’t think he would tolerate the human rights violations that the Marcoses did just because they were friends and I think he already clarified that.”

Duterte’s father Vicente was Cabinet secretary for general services during Marcos’ first term as president.

“I’m against the burial of Marcos and I think Duterte would understand it because I’m a victim of the Marcoses. So I said I’m against it. But is his position of giving Marcos a burial in whatever cemetery enough for me to say ‘I don’t want to be part of your Cabinet?’ I don’t think so, because there are other bigger issues right now that we can work on together,” Taguiwalo explained.

She said Duterte could bring about changes in government and eradicate corruption, citing the incoming president’s proposals to do away with wasteful practices and activities.

“He called for using simple vehicles, flying economy class, no more junkets. It is a good start,” she said.

Crass generalization

Meanwhile, relatives of slain environmental activist and Palawan broadcaster Gerry Ortega and Manila tabloid reporter Alex Balcoba also slammed Duterte for his remarks on journalist killings.

Ortega’s daughter Mika said their family was “incensed by the hasty and crass generalizations made (by Duterte) about murdered journalists in the country.”

“This kind of speech is alarming because without due process, it casts absolute judgment on all murdered journalists, including those who were killed for telling the truth,” she lamented.

Duterte in a news conference on Tuesday night cited the case of Jun Pala, a journalist and outspoken critic who was shot dead in Davao City in 2003. The murder is unsolved.

“The example here is Pala. I do not want to diminish his memory, but he was a rotten son of a bitch. He deserved it,” Duterte said. “If you are an upright journalist, nothing will happen to you.”

Duterte, already criticized for appointing as his spokesman a lawyer of the clan behind the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, told a press conference in Davao City that he was just telling the truth.

In a statement, the Ortegas said this does not apply to all journalist killings.

“Doc Gerry Ortega was killed for his courage and integrity. He was murdered precisely because he was honorable. He fought for social justice,” Mika stressed. “He stood up against mining in Palawan. He exposed corruption in the provincial government, which included the misuse of billions of pesos from the Malampaya Fund.”

Ortega was shot dead in January 2011. The alleged masterminds, former Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother former Coron town mayor Mario Reyes, are now standing trial before the Palawan Regional Trial Court for the murder.  

Ma. Reynafe Castillo, daughter of Maguindanao massacre victim Reynaldo “Bebot” Momay, also said that her father was not a corrupt journalist.

“He was killed along with 31 other journalists by just merely covering an election-related incident. It is unfair to be branded as such. They were brutally killed. I saw the 57 bodies one by one with my own eyes as I searched for my Dad’s body. They were shot at close range. You can’t even identify them. Branding slain journalists as such is not acceptable,” she said.

Address impunity

Romel Bagares, executive director of the Center for International Law which represents some of the media victims in the Maguindanao massacre case, challenged Duterte to address the culture of impunity in the country.

“As an incoming president and as a lawyer, you must surely know that the state has an obligation under international law and constitutional law to provide effective remedy to victims of human rights violations. Your remark is not only insensitive; by it you only show a cynical attitude toward what is a serious concern to the international community and a scourge to any society founded on democratic ideals,” he said.

“You also implied … that journalists are often killed because they had been corrupt. That is an insult to the memory of many journalists whose only mistake was being faithful to their professional calling to a fault,” Bagares added.

Chilling effect

A lawmaker also expressed serious concern over Duterte’s statements that corrupt and biased journalists deserved to die.

“Not only does it encourage people to take the law into their own hands, it also encourages them to break the law for the wrong reason, circumstances that cannot be justified under any condition, especially in a society ruled by law,” said Ifugao Rep. Teodoro Baguilat, a former journalist.

“The freedom of the press is one of the foundations of Philippine democracy. President-elect Duterte’s statement creates a chilling effect among journalists and threatens them to toe the line, or else. This is anathema to a democracy as it is this attitude precisely that has led to many journalists being killed,” he said.

Being a “son of a bitch, or corrupt or biased journalist” is not an offense punishable by death, Baguilat said.

International media, including The Washington Post, CNN and The Guardian, have picked up the latest remarks of Duterte.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) earlier slammed Duterte for his statement, saying it “tends to suggest that it is OK to get a journalist killed if he or she is involved in a corrupt practice.”

“The NUJP does not gloss over the fact that corruption is among the most pressing problems faced by the media. Nor do we deny that this could be the reason for a number of media killings,” NUJP chairman Ryan Rosauro said.

“However, it is one thing to recognize a possible reason for murder; it is a totally different thing to present this as a justification for taking a life,” he added.

The NUJP said Duterte, in effect, has declared an open season to silence the media, both individual journalists and the institution, on the mere perception of corruption.

“Even if this (were made in) jest, and we see no reason to believe this was the case, your words may well be interpreted as marching order by those with an axe to grind against a critical press,” the group said.

The NUJP also noted there are instances when the suspects in media killings are those who are accused of corruption.

“While there may be instances where private individuals may have sought revenge against journalists for soiling their reputations, the data show that of the handful of media killings that have actually made it to the courts, the accused are invariably from government – elected officials, government executives or members of the security services – and invariably accused of corruption,” the group said.

Other media groups and relatives of murdered journalists also criticized Duterte over his statements.

“The ?Philippines is the second deadliest country in the world for journalists. Following the brutal execution of Alex Balcoba in Manila, the newly elected Filipino president, Rodrigo Duterte, said that many slain journalists had ‘done something’ to warrant being assassinated,” the International Federation of Journalists said.

“Duterte needs to take immediate action to end the culture of violence and impunity against the media in the Philippines and support press freedom and freedom of expression,” the group added. 

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) took exception to Duterte’s statements, saying some, if not most, of the journalists killed in the country were killed for exposing corruption in the government.

“While corruption is undoubtedly a continuing problem in the press and media, journalists have been killed for other reasons, among them for exposing corruption in government,” the CMFR said.

The CMFR cited the case of Ortega and Marlene Esperat of Tacurong City for their advocacy in environmental protection.

The CMFR said some have also been killed for exposing anomalies in local governments as well as for fighting criminality.

“Because a significant number of those accused of killing journalists are local officials, as well as police and military personnel, the killings also suggest that the slain had been successful in exposing official wrongdoing and collusion with criminal groups,” CMFR said.

Florabel, the wife of slain journalist Balcoba, also hit Duterte for being insensitive to the plight of media practitioners.

“If my husband is corrupt then why are we living in a rented room? On the day Alex was killed we only have P200,” Florabel said.

“I am a teacher. During the campaign period we campaigned for him. We used our Facebook account to help him win. Now this is what we get,” she lamented.

No crime deterrent

At the House of Representatives, Belmonte said the passage of Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law in 1993 was not easy. The law was then repealed in June 2006.

“It was very difficult to pass the first (death penalty) law considering virtually all developed countries in the world have no death penalty, except for the US and not all its states,” Belmonte told the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum yesterday.

“That is going to be a contentious issue in my opinion,” he said.

Belmonte, without disclosing his stand on the proposal, said that based on previous discussions in the House of Representatives on the issue, there were studies showing that capital punishment did not deter crime, but the certainty of prosecution and punishment.

However, some senior lawmakers have also argued otherwise, saying the death penalty will stop heinous crimes.

“I’m sure there’ll be raucous debate,” Belmonte said.

The House leader also said even the “super majority” that Duterte’s choice for speaker in the 17th Congress – incoming Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez – wants to form may not necessarily deliver overwhelming numbers.

“This will be considered a conscience vote, so even if you have the ‘super majority,’ it’s not a sure thing,” Belmonte said.

He said the Reproductive Health Law, which was not as controversial and had the support of many Filipinos, took decades before it was enacted in 2012. – With Jess Diaz, Janvic Mateo, Artemio Dumlao, Rey Galupo, Cesar Suerte Felipe